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BBC VHS

BBC VHS tapes

The following is a list of VHS titles released by the BBC, broken down by year of release. Doctor Who and K9 and Company are the only two Whoniverse-related programmes to be released to VHS. They were released in both PAL and NTSC formats for both European and North American audiences. The catalogue number and release dates given here apply only to the PAL UK releases, with North American and other territory releases usually occurring at some point after (but occasionally before) the UK release.

Until about 1995, the William Hartnell releases would be edited to remove “next episode” captions that lead into a different story to avoid confusing casual buyers. Also, until the release of The Daleks in late 1989, the releases were edited together into an omnibus format which removed cliffhangers and opening and closing credits between episodes. Some releases prior to this point also featured other edits for content reasons (such as the nunchaku scene from The Talons of Weng-Chiang).

In the 2 decades following that, nearly 150 Who-related VHS videos were released, which included all complete classic series stories, compilations of the other surviving episodes, some documentaries and a number of incomplete stories (with photos and narration to fill the gaps).

By the end of 2003, the supply of episodes to be released finally ran out, and combined with the dwindling market for VHS tapes, the BBC switched solely to releasing Who on DVD

Also note that The UK and Australian VHS releases had the video encoded in PAL format, while the US releases were in NTSC format. So unless you had a multi-standard VCR, UK/Australian videos wouldn’t play in US VCRs, and vice versa.

VHS tapes can still be purchased second hand on market place on Amazon, I’d be delighted for your support to the website

Welcome to the BBC VHS Guide, here you will find info on the videos available to own – click a topic for your choice